1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to systems and method adapted to improve and aid driving of motor vehicles by users, as well as, increase awareness of the driver to traffic signs and the driver's surroundings.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
While driving a vehicle, drivers may, at times, become less aware or otherwise become oblivious to certain road conditions, as could happen during a mundane and/or a monotonous drive, or even when the attention of the driver may be diverted as a result of, for example, road sceneries, cell phone calls, radio stations tuning and so forth. During such distractions, the driver may not observe certain traffic signs, traffic lights and/or other road conditions, such as those indicating impending dangers and other hazards. Common dangerous example is a vehicle approaching a traffic light indicating a “Green” light, while the vehicle is in a short to none stopping distance from the traffic light; light indication has changed to “Red” leaving the driver in an unclear and dangerous situation how to respond. In these and other instances, the driver may delay response to such conditions and/or the driver may hesitate or otherwise become confused in reacting, i.e., wrongfully, accelerating, decelerating, applying brakes etc., of the vehicle thereby further risking the driver and/or the driver's surroundings. Another aspect may be an unevenly traffic flow control due to unexpected acceleration/deceleration of vehicles approaching traffic sign and/or traffic light indications. In addressing such shortcomings, certain prior art systems have been conceived such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,859,428 B2, titled “system and method for electronic road signs with in-car display capabilities”, where wireless network system transmitters indicate road sign to mobile computing device in the vehicle by wireless signal. The system described in '428 B2 patent is based on wireless communication network, which does not offer a localization information (e.g. range and orientation to relevant traffic sign indication). For example, a vehicle approaching a junction with several traffic signs may be indicated with a wrong or irrelevant traffic sign indication as the wireless network described is transmitting a radial signal which is a scalar (e.g. with no specific orientation). Another drawback of '428 B2 patent is directly associated with the mass infrastructure that may be required to distribute the mesh of wireless transmitters along the road. An additional prior art is described in EU Patent No. EP 1 544 828 B1, titled “optical communication equipment and vehicle control method”, where a road sign is indicated by an optical communication transmission received in an inter-vehicle optical messaging equipment. The system described in '828 B1 patent does not offer multiple indication areas (e.g. prior approaching vehicle) with different optical information as required, for example, when coupled to a traffic light indication. Additional certain prior art systems have been conceived, including driver aid imaging systems (e.g. camera based and alike) detecting road signs and/or navigation based tools utilizing Global Position System and/or digital maps and/or vision based camera modules etc. Notwithstanding their availability, such prior art systems have not been able to provide adequate solutions to the above shortcomings
Before describing the invention method regarding vehicular systems based on a receiver and traffic signs, the following definitions are put forward.
The term “Near Infra-Red” (NIR) as used herein is a part of the Infra-Red spectrum with wavelength between 700 to 2000 nanometers.
The term “Field Of View” (FOV) as used herein is the angular extent of a given scene, delineated by the angle of a three dimensional cone that is imaged onto an image sensor of a camera, the camera being the vertex of the three dimensional cone. The FOV of a camera at particular distances is determined by the focal length of the lens and the active image sensor dimensions.
The term “Field Of Illumination” (FOI) as used herein is the angular extent of a given scene, delineated by the angle of a three dimensional cone that is illuminated from an illuminator (e.g. LED, LASER, flash lamp, etc.) or reflected from a surface (e.g. Lambertian, retro-reflector, etc.), the illuminator or the reflecting surface being the vertex of the three dimensional cone. The FOI of an illuminator at particular distances is determined by the focal length of the lens and the illuminator illuminating surface dimensions. The FOI of a reflecting surface at particular distances is determined by the type of reflecting surface, the incident illumination Angle Of Arrival (AOA) and the surface illuminated/reflected dimensions.